In the long term, Step Up seeks to make a significant, positive impact on the learning experiences of secondary students throughout Queensland: to improve engagement in the sciences through middle school; and to increase the scientific literacy of the Queensland community.
Although the extent of these sectoral and societal impacts will not be immediately evident, outcomes and impacts of the project can be seen through:
- changes to academic practice that enable greater engagement with scientific values, thinking and practice amongst training teachers as core to the learning experience
- documented changes to course structures and articulations in Queensland Universities
- opportunities for undergraduate mathematics and science students (including practical sciences such as engineering) to have an authentic introduction to teaching as a career of choice
- take up of such opportunities by undergraduate students
- availability of and engagement with new mechanisms for pre-service teacher networking and mentoring
- collaborative involvement of STEM professionals/educators and teacher educators in pre-service teacher education.
In the coming years, measurement and publication of interim impacts including, increased retention for early career teachers, increased numbers of mathematics and science students transitioning to the teaching profession and strong maths/science knowledge and pedagogy amongst pre-service teachers, can provide further evidence of project outcomes and impact.
The Step Up Gallery provides brief insights into the immediate benefits for pre-service secondary mathematics and science teachers who participated in the learning and developmental experiences offered by Step Up.